Saturday, May 26, 2012

GAME 11
Hello everyone, I am GM Arkadij Naiditsch, welcome to the live coverage of game 11 of the World Chess Championship!
The game starts in just a few minutes, today is one of the last days for the New books discounted package at the Chessdom shop.
What to expect from Gelfand today? This is his last White, in the previous games he managed to put a lot of pressure on Anand so probably this won't be an easy day for the World Champion.
Another question is what kind of opening will Anand choose today? He faced problems in Slav and in Nimzo as well...

1. d4 So we see the first move of Gelfand, the usual 1.d4.
1... Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 And Anand is going again for the Nimzo-Indian defence.
4. e3 It seems like he really got fed of suffering in Slav. We have the main Nimzo with 4.e3, Rubinstein variation. This time we can expect Anand to be better prepared than in the previous game.
4... O-O 5. Bd3 d5 6. Nf3 c5 Till now they follow the moves from the 9th game. It will be interesting to see if Anand is going to repeat 7.0-0 dxc4 or this time go for the main lines with 7...Nc6.
7. O-O dxc4 8. Bxc4 Bd7 Wow, this is a real surprise, 8...Bd7!? I am myself playing Nimzo with Black for the last 10 years and never even thought about this move.
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And indeed, the database is showing that this move is super rare, but been already played by very strong players like Korchnoi or Jussupow (old school move).
Gelfand also appears to be surprised about the opening choise of Anand. But I think Anand's team did a good job this time. We are in the 11th game of the match, both players are tired, and it is very difficult to fight against a good preparation, even knowing that you should be better as White.
Probably the main moves for White should be now 9.a3 or 9.Bd3.
At 9.a3 of course Black will have to take 9...Bxc3 10.bxc3 Bc6 (if 10...Qa5 11.Rb1! is very strong) so we are reaching a typical Nimzo-Indian position. White got a bishop pair, Black got the better pawn structure...
In case of 9.Bd3 cxd4! 10.exd4 Bc6 I think that Black should be doing fine. The usual problem of the isolated pawn positions, the bishop on c8, is out now on c6.
By now it is clear, Gelfand is out of his preparation. I guess Anand and particularly his team took a deep breath after losing the opening duel in so many games in a row. Finally they managed to surprise the very well prepared Boris Gelfand.
Of course now 9.d5?! would be a positional mistake because of 9...Bxc3 10.dxe6 Bxe6!, important move, 11.Bxe6 fxe6 12.bxc3 Qxd1 and in this endgame Black has no problems at all, the White bishop on c1 is a very bad piece.
Gelfand is already thinking for 30 minutes! This is not looking good. He is anyway very tired from the match, and a 30 minutes thought is clearly not making him fresher. Anand's chances are increasing with every minute Gelfand is spending on this position. I think Gelfand is considering now maybe to make a "safe play" and play something very solid, and I think this is 9.Bd3.
In case of 9.a3 position would be quite dynamic after 9...Bxc3 10.bxc3 and somehow I don't think Gelfand is self-confident enough to go into it.

9. a3 Ba5 After a very long thought Gelfand is playing 9.a3!?, a sign that he is ready to fight today, and Anand answers quickly 9...Ba5.
I thought 9...Bxc3 would be played, but not. Of course 9...Ba5 is a very solid move, now 10.dxc5? is bad because of 10...Bxc3 11.bxc3 Qc7 and only Black can push for an edge here.
Maybe White could try to play 10.Bd2!?, seems like a logical choice to me, even if after 10...cxd4 11.Nd4 Nc6 the position is looking probably equal.

10. Qe2 Bc6 11. Rd1 Bxc3 12. bxc3 Nbd7 We see a series of quick moves. In my opinion, Black managed to trick White is bit. Moves Qe2 and Rd1 are not fitting well now into the idea of position, and the idea of White is to play e4. Probably at 13.Bd3 is coming 13...Be4.
13. Bd3 And we see Gelfand is playing 13.Bd3 anyway, why? Probably because he could not find anything else. In case of 13.Bb2 Qc7! (threatening Ng4 next) probably White would have nothing better than to play 14.Bd3 anyway, so why not to play it immediately.
13... Qa5 *

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